Exploding Into Night

By Sandy Pool

In Exploding into Night, Sandy Pool delves into the heart of a grisly murder that took place in the Parkdale area of Toronto. With its dazzling turns and deafening silence, this narrative poem is a stark reappraisal of urban existence and its heartache. Pool's metaphysical landscape speaks in multiple voices and prods the very nature of our collective conscience. A selection of poems from this collection was awarded First Place in the 2009 Elora Writers' Festival Poetry Contest. The collection has been short-listed for the 2010 Governor General's award for English poetry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Guernica
• Release date: Jan 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781550715125

Sandy Pool

Sandy Pool is a writer and multi-disciplinary artist who lives in Toronto. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in English and Theatre Performance and holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Sandy is a recipient of the Sharon Drummond Scholarship, and the Constance Rooke Scholarship in Creative Writing. Currently she teaches Writing Skills at Humber College, is working on an Opera commissioned by Tapestry New Opera Works, and is working on her PhD. in Canadian Literature and Creative Writing. Exploding Into Night is her first collection of poetry.

Book preview

SANDY POOL

EXPLODING INTO NIGHT

 FIRST POETS SERIES 6

GUERNICA

Toronto – Buffalo – Lancaster (U.K.)

2009  

For Parkdale, and for Rose

I promised to show you a map you say but this is a mural

then yes let it be     these are small distinctions

where do we see it from is the question

Adrienne Rich,

An Atlas of the Difficult World

EXPLODING INTO NIGHT

Here is her street at dusk. The slick sheen of streetlamps glowing over Parkdale. Here is her street, open mouthed, desolate. Tulips long dead, no traffic. Even the park closed down. Panic of needles, small wasps crouching in sand. On Landsdowne, Sunday bells flood out from the little Portuguese church where Nathan still works the corner. Survivors scavenge the shoreline, looking for fuselage.

It isn’t supposed to end like this, blood burdening the lake. Spring and the scientists baffled. Nuclear run-off, all the carp dead. At

Reviews for Exploding Into Night

[mizmoffatt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Exploding into Night spins the disorienting, visceral realities of coldblooded murder into cutting poetic prose. Drawing from a recent murder in Toronto's Parkdale area, Sandy Pool's narrative poem explores the threatening silence of the urban landscape as it flickers between the final moments of the murdered and the murderer. Each word carries a serrated edge that cuts into the very consciousness of the community at large. Brilliant, brutal, and bloodied—even avowed poetry haters will find much to celebrate in this book.Ideal for: CSI junkies with a hidden poetic predilection; Readers in need of a good poetic shock; Jaded poets who need a reminder as to what poetry should be.(less)

[Jenna Swanson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Pool's collection of poetry here aligns the emotions brought on by loss of love, and the reality of what the loss does to every inch of your body. I mean, what would be without a torso. I am not from Canada, and though her story tells that of a recent murder, it also elucidates deep feelings, some she simplifies, some she magnifies.
An amazing read, and a quick one, too.